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Oklahoma City man says West Nile was part of God's plan

Jason Wisdom's name says it all. Jason, in Greek, means "a healing." Wisdom is an expert in healing after surviving a mosquito bite that gave him one of the worst cases of West Nile virus on record.

But Wisdom doesn't credit his own tenacity or strength of mind for overcoming paralysis, extreme pain and fear. He credits God.

And God certainly seemed to speak to Wisdom during his trial in many ways that would be hard for even a nonbeliever to reconcile.

Wisdom is one of three survivors recently honored with Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Courage Awards.

“I don't really know how to feel about it,” he said, referring to the award. “I'm honored and humbled that I would be picked as a staple of courage, but on the flip side, I don't think I'm where I am today because of my courage. I think it's because of my Heavenly Father's healing hand.”

Wisdom's right arm is still paralyzed from his bout with West Nile. His leg muscles are atrophied, but he can walk short distances. His left shoulder is paralyzed but he can use his arm, and he is left-handed so he is able to write and function with that hand.

It's not so much the details of his hospital stays and therapies that make Wisdom's story unusual and special. It's the moments that he believes God made Himself present that bring tears to Wisdom's eyes. They're tears of sheer joy.

Success and then sickness

Wisdom's story begins before he got West Nile. He had been obese and joined a “Biggest Loser”-style weight-loss contest with friends. In only three months, he lost 66 pounds and found himself in the best shape of his life. He fell in love with mountain biking and wanted badly to one day participate in an Iron Man competition. He'd done a triathlon and loved it.

Then he got sick. It started on a Saturday, and by that Thursday, he was so sick he had to rush to the emergency room at St. Anthony Hospital. He had developed a burning rash, had zero energy and had extreme vertigo to the point of being nearly blinded from the world spinning around him.

Wisdom remembers being checked into the hospital.

“From there I start forgetting a lot,” he said. “This is the beginning of what we call the ‘bad days.' ”

His lungs were shutting down. His body was paralyzed yet he had full sensations — itching, burning, pain. His right arm felt like it was on fire.

At one point, after several days in the hospital, his family was feeling optimistic because he had been successfully intubated. Then he “coded.” He couldn't breathe. His family, in a waiting room, heard a loudspeaker “code blue” call to his room.

His wife, Jessica, knows what code blue means — she works in a hospital. A doctor she knew from Griffin Memorial Hospital was there that night. His usually stoic face showed fear at that moment, and that's when she panicked the most.

“She fell to her knees and started crying. She thought I was going to die,” Wisdom said through tears. He cries not for his own experience, but for all the terrible emotions his wife and family went through during his illness.

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'The worst,' and then what?

Wisdom was put on a ventilator and given a tracheotomy. His life was slipping away.

“That was the worst of it,” he said.

Then he started healing.

“That's Christ. He started healing me. The medical professionals kept me alive and treated the symptoms. I wouldn't have made it without modern-day medicine, and that's a blessing from God.”

His lungs were paralyzed, his voice gone and he couldn't move, but his heart never stopped and his brain stayed active.

He was moved to an acute care center but only stayed three weeks because he worked extremely hard and was able to endure the therapies.

Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation was where he made major strides in regaining his motion and strength. He compares the experience to a baby taking his first steps.

“It's pure joy or terror in that kid's face,” he said. “I just got to relive my childhood. I got to know the joy of sitting up on my own, standing on my own, taking my first step. And I'll be able to remember it.”

Several moments of Wisdom's journey from the brink of death to becoming an even more devout follower of God seem almost miraculous.

For example, his sister, who died several years ago, loved ladybugs. Through the years, ladybugs would show up in odd places at odd times, like in the dead of winter, on a windshield, on his brother's hand at Christmas.

One day while still at St. Anthony, Wisdom said he felt sweat dripping down his forehead. He asked a nurse to wipe it away.

“That's not sweat,” she said. “It's a ladybug.”

Another God thing was when, before his illness, he befriended an Ultimate Frisbee player who was a fitness model and trainer. That friend challenged Wisdom to find three physiques he wanted to train to be like.

After searching, Wisdom found an athlete, Jason Lester, who is one of very few people in the world to complete an Iron Man and an Ultrathon within one year. Wisdom remembers being taken with Lester for his accomplishments, the fact that they shared a first name, that he was a Christian, and that he'd done it all without the use of his right arm, which was paralyzed.

Focus on what he didn't lose

After Wisdom contracted West Nile, his trainer friend brought him an iPad loaded with Jason Lester's book, “Running on Faith.”

“I picked him before I got sick, and now I'm lying in the hospital with my right arm paralyzed about to read this book by a man whose name is Jason, who's a Christian who's done what was my new passion (Iron Man and Ultrathon) and all without the use of his right arm,” Wisdom said.

Wisdom believes it was God's plan for this athlete to inspire him.

Especially because everyone said that with nerve damage like Wisdom had, what strides he makes in recovery within anywhere from six months to two years would be the limit of his healing. Lester had lost the use of his right arm in an accident and, 20 years later, regained use of the arm. This gives Wisdom hope.

Wisdom says he knows he is better off now than he was before his illness. He believes he was inspired to become an athlete and lose his excess weight because it was part of God's plan for him to be healthy enough to survive what was in store.

“I am better than I was because I know what's important. And it's a blessing because so many people don't get the opportunity I did,” he said.

He lost a lot during his illness. But he gained more than he lost, he believes.

“I lost everything but the necessities,” Wisdom said. “I didn't lose my brain, I didn't lose my heart, I didn't lose my left hand to write, to eat and to shoot a gun. And my wife is expecting our second child, so I didn't lose that either.”

Jason Wisdom, left, Sam Allton, seated, and Mac McCrory received Integris Jim Thorpe Courage Awards at the seventh annual Courage Awards Gala Aug. 22 at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. The awards are presented to three individuals who have displayed exceptional bravery and grace through the most difficult of circumstances. Jason Wisdom, while in the hospital recovering from West Nile virus, was visited by a ladybug, which he believes was an incarnation of his late sister who loved ladybugs. [Photo provided]